Fast-start online validation tool for proactive waiting list management

With 7+ million people on the waiting lists, hospitals can’t rely solely on admin and clinical staff to validate the backlogs. Digital support is vital – and cleansing the data for them to work on must be the first step. Whilst validation teams work around the clock to tackle the next cohorts needing attention, their efforts only allow us to keep pace, not get ahead.

Meeting the 78-week targets may give some respite, but what about the next tsunami already building? Do you know the size of your 65-week task and whether it will create another, bigger 78-week cohort?

Sustainable waiting list management

At Insource, we provide a fast-start validation tool that allows you to target your biggest backlogs first and put in place sustainable processes that manage your waiting lists long-term. With Patient Pathway Lite (PP Lite) – Technical Validation you can start with the specialties causing the biggest headaches, then expand out to encompass all specialties over time.

PP Lite Technical Validation is an online validation tool that allows visibility of the specialties under review.  It allows validators to check whether the patient is on the right list and in the right place in their pathway. This single source of the truth tracks error types and shows where they originate, it extracts evidenced-based insights that highlight bottlenecks and above all identifies risk – enabling immediate corrective actions. 

The system shows the overall progress of the validation team’s workload, the observations they record, the actions taken and next steps.  It allows trusts to understand the true size of their waiting lists and to sustainably keep pace with new referrals as they occur.

Solution benefits

  • Single source of truth
  • Live collaborative validation tool
  • Enables error identification, tracking and correction
  • Extracts evidence-based insights
  • Identifies bottlenecks
  • Pinpoints training needs
  • Helps reduce waiting lists
  • Reduces validation costs
  • Sustainable waiting list management

Collaborative validation & performance management

With so many people involved in the patient pathway – secretaries, admin staff, validators – not every event is captured correctly.  With PP Lite this single, collaborative online PTL allows the data quality team, and any validators in the specialties, to work together to improve the lists. It removes the use of disparate out-of-date spreadsheets. And the single view, single interface allows multiple users to record their findings in one place.

The data in this environment persists and stats can show how many clock stops were identified, how many actual errors were recorded and where. Insource validation is an extensive performance management tool within Data Quality teams but can also provide verified data for system-wide improvements and management oversight.

Insource validation also helps DQ staff feel part of a wider team, with a recognised impact on patient care. PP Lite helps build job satisfaction and encourages employee retention.

Reducing validation costs

All too often trusts rely on a big, once per year, data quality exercise to clean waiting lists at a huge cost of external validators.  Whilst it may be essential to clean up the lists initially, the process should not need to be repeated annually.  With Insource our technical validation solutions allow trusts to keep their records clean on an ongoing basis. We can help you build daily error identification, tracking and correction processes that improve your overall waiting list management and give you control.

Insource does also facilitate the larger data validation exercises and often finds our full validation projects encompass PAS migrations and EPR installations where huge numbers of patient record errors arise.  It is not unheard of to see thousands of missing pathways surface in these larger programmes.

Targeted training tool

PP Lite Technical Validation is an invaluable performance management tool assisting not only in overall waiting list reduction but also informing staff training.  Insource validation identifies the errors recorded and the key people involved, so targeted training can be swiftly implemented.

At Insource our RTT eLearning modules can also be provided to enable staff to understand how to precisely record patient waiting times and track a patient’s progress. Our CPD-accredited patient pathway training cuts through the jargon and ensures an understanding of the current Referral-to-Treatment rules.

Insource eLearning, together with PP Lite, boosts staff performance and increases data accuracy. With accurate waiting lists comes achievable capacity planning, effective resource utilisation and tighter financial management.

Bringing down the backlogs

PP Lite can support administrative and clinical validation tasks to keep the records clean and up to date.  It provides visibility, data assurance and evidenced-based insights to enable validators, operations, and performance teams to work together to bring down the backlogs.

Download the data sheet – here